Principle of War #11 – Surprise

Surprise: Do the unexpected

When improving and growing the organizations you serve simply meeting customer expectations is good, but often not enough. We don’t just want the organization to be good, we want incredible and unforgettable. By following the principle of surprise organizations develop advantage over competitors and build customer loyalty.

Green and Black Belts are familiar with the Kano Model, which challenges Kaizen teams to think of delighters (wow factors). Customers do not ask for delighters, we surprise them. Keep in mind this can be internal or external customers.

Delighters can take any shape from a mint on your hotel room pillow all the way up to new technology like self-parking cars. No matter the scale the questions are the same: “Who is the customer?”, “What does the customer value?”, and “What could we do to delight our customer?”

Surprise your customer with a “delighter”.